Northern State University Overview

Northern State University is a public institution situated in Aberdeen, South Dakota. The surrounding location of Aberdeen is ideal for students who enjoy the charms of a college town.

What Is Northern State University Known For?

• Students at NSU have an easier time paying back their loans. The school's student loan default rate is only 5%, compared to the national rate of 10.1%.
• The master's degree is the highest award offered at NSU.
• For the 2019-2020 academic year, 96% of the faculty were full-time.
• After graduation, NSU bachelor's degree recipients go on to jobs where they make $43,429 a year. That's about 6% more than their peers at other schools.

Northern State University Rankings

NSU is ranked #230 out of 2,018 schools in the nation for overall quality on our 2023 Best Colleges list. This puts it in the top 15% of all schools in the nation. NSU also holds the #3 spot on the Best Colleges in South Dakota ranking.

These rankings may look different from those published by other outlets, because we use an outcomes-based approach rather than a subjective one. We get our data from a number of places, including the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and the College Scorecard. For more information, check out our rankings and methodology page.

NSU has also been awarded the following overall awards by our latest rankings.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#131	Best Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Program Level Awards

These are highlights of some of the most noteworthy awards granted to specific programs at NSU.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#19	Best Curriculum & Instruction Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#19	Best Value Parks, Recreation, Leisure & Fitness Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#20	Best Value Education Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#31	Best Teacher Education Subject Specific Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#34	Best Student Counseling Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#36	Best Special Education Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#66	Best Education Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#71	Best Educational Administration Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#88	Best Teacher Education Grade Specific Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#151	Best Accounting Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Awards From Around the Web

The following table lists some notable awards NSU has earned from around the web.

Rank	Ranking Name	Source
#1	Best Banking and Financial Support Services Master’s Degree Schools	College Factual
#41	Best Value Colleges for Teacher Education Subject Specific	College Factual
#45	Best Value Colleges for Special Education	College Factual
#53	Best Value Colleges for Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies	College Factual
#55	Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Education	College Factual
#108	Best Teaching Schools	Teaching Degree Search

Where Is Northern State University?

Contact details for NSU are given below.

	Contact Details
Address:	1200 S Jay St, Aberdeen, SD 57401-7198
Phone:	605-626-3011
Website:	www.northern.edu
Facebook:	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Northern-State-University/112538332202097
Twitter:	https://twitter.com/NorthernStateU

How Do I Get Into NSU?

You can apply to NSU online at: https://apply.northern.edu/apply/

Admission Requirements for NSU

Submission	Required?
High School GPA	required
High School Rank	required
High School Transcript	required
College Prep Program	required
Recommendations	considered but not required
SAT or ACT Scores	considered but not required
TOEFL	required

How Hard Is It To Get Into NSU?

With an acceptance rate of 79%, NSU may not be as selective as some schools, but you should not take admittance for granted. Be sure to submit the best application you can.

Approximately 39% of accepted students are men and 61% are women. The acceptance rate for men is 74%, and the acceptance rate for women is 82%.

Average Test Scores

About 2% of students accepted to NSU submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 480 and 580. Math scores were between 510 and 560.

NSU received ACT scores from 89% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT English scores ranged between 17 and 24. Math scores were between 18 and 25. Composite scores were between 19 and 25.

Can I Afford Northern State University?

The overall average net price of NSU is $23,294. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group.

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.

Student Loan Debt

Almost 66% of college students who graduated with the class of 2018 took out student loans, but that percentage varies from school to school. At NSU, approximately 62% of students took out student loans averaging $7,286 a year. That adds up to $29,144 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at NSU is 4.7%. This is significantly lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, which is a good sign that you'll be able to pay back your student loans.

Northern State University Undergraduate Student Diversity

There are 2,968 undergraduate students at NSU, with 1,149 being full-time and 1,819 being part-time.

There are also 463 graduate students at the school.

Gender Diversity

Of the 1,149 full-time undergraduates at NSU, 43% are male and 57% are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

The racial-ethnic breakdown of Northern State University students is as follows.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	20
Black or African American	30
Hispanic or Latino	42
White	944
International Students	32
Other Races/Ethnicities	81

Geographic Diversity

South Dakota students aren't the only ones who study at Northern State University. At this time, 19 states are represented by the student population at the school.

Over 50 countries are represented at NSU. The most popular countries sending students to the school are South Korea, China, and Mexico.

Online Learning at Northern State University

In 2019-2020, 2,349 students took at least one online class at the school.

The following chart shows how the online learning population at NSU has changed over the last few years.

This school is the 4th most popular in South Dakota for online learning according to the online graduations recorded by the Department of Education for the academic year 2019-2020.

Online Affordability Rankings of NSU

During the most recent year for which we have data, the full-time undergraduate tuition at Northern State University was $8,750 for in-state students. Out-of-state students paid $11,821. The following table shows how NSU is ranked for affordability for both in-state and out-of-state students among colleges and universities that are not mostly online.

Major	Tuition for In-State Students	Tuition for Out-of-State Students
Finance & Financial Management	#13	#10
Foreign Languages & Linguistics	#13	#4
Romance Languages	#13	#4
International Business	#22	#7
Accounting	#28	#21
Marketing	#52	#27

Online Affordability Rankings of NSU Rankings

During the most recent year for which we have data, the full-time undergraduate tuition at Northern State University was $8,750 for in-state students. Out-of-state students paid $11,821. The following table shows how NSU is ranked for affordability for both in-state and out-of-state students among colleges and universities that are mostly online.

Major	Tuition for In-State Students	Tuition for Out-of-State Students
Curriculum & Instruction	#4	#10
Teacher Education Subject Specific	#4	#7
International Business	#4	#4
Finance & Financial Management	#7	#13
Business, Management & Marketing	#16	#16
Educational Administration	#22	#22
Marketing	#28	#34
Accounting	#28	#37
Liberal Arts / Sciences & Humanities	#37	#34
Liberal Arts General Studies	#37	#34
Business Administration & Management	#43	#73

Online Growth Rankings of NSU

The average growth rate over the last four years of online students at Northern State University was -6.0%. This is the #1,946 largest growth rate of all schools that are only partially online. This refers to all students at NSU regardless of major.

The following table shows the 1-year growth rate of NSU majors that offer at least one online course. This table only includes majors with positive growth.

Major	1-Year Growth Rate
Accounting	50%
Education	28%
Educational Administration	38%
International Business	50%
Romance Languages	50%
Special Education	43%
Teacher Education Grade Specific	26%
Teacher Education Subject Specific	23%

The table below shows how the average growth rate over 4 years at NSU ranks compared to all other partially online schools that offer a specific major. Note that the majors may or may not be offered online at NSU.

Major	Growth Rate Rank
Romance Languages	#69
International Business	#95
Foreign Languages & Linguistics	#117
History	#156
History	#156
Finance & Financial Management	#178
Marketing	#293

When we speak of partially online, we are referring to schools whose online population is less than 50% of its total student body. Mostly online refers to those with online populations greater than or equal to 50%.

Northern State University Undergraduate Concentrations

The table below shows the number of awards for each concentration.

Major	Basic Certificate	Associate’s	Bachelor’s	Master’s	TOTAL
Teacher Education Grade Specific	0	0	38	0	38
Teacher Education Subject Specific	0	0	20	15	35
Curriculum & Instruction	0	0	0	34	34
Health & Physical Education	0	0	20	13	33
Business Administration & Management	0	2	26	0	28
Special Education	0	0	21	0	21
Accounting	0	0	18	0	18
General Biology	6	0	11	0	17
Liberal Arts General Studies	0	12	5	0	17
General Psychology	0	0	16	0	16
Marketing	0	0	13	0	13
Educational Administration	0	0	0	13	13
Student Counseling	0	0	0	13	13
Finance & Financial Management	0	1	7	4	12
General English Literature	0	0	10	0	10
Music	3	0	5	0	8
Chemistry	0	0	7	0	7
Criminal Justice & Corrections	0	1	6	0	7
History	0	0	5	0	5
Sociology	0	0	5	0	5
Teaching English or French	4	0	0	0	4
Writing Studies	0	0	4	0	4
Biotechnology	1	2	0	0	3
Management Information Systems	0	0	3	0	3
Ecology, Evolution & Systematics Biology	0	0	2	0	2
International Business	0	0	2	0	2
Romance Languages	0	0	2	0	2
Political Science & Government	0	0	2	0	2
Drama & Theater Arts	0	0	2	0	2
Fine & Studio Arts	0	0	2	0	2
Clinical/Medical Laboratory Science	0	0	1	0	1
Design & Applied Arts	0	0	1	0	1
Information Technology	0	0	0	0	0
Instructional Media Design	0	0	0	0	0
Germanic Languages	0	0	0	0	0
Mathematics	0	0	0	0	0
Economics	0	0	0	0	0
General Social Sciences	0	0	0	0	0
Geography & Cartography	0	0	0	0	0
TOTAL	14	18	254	92	378

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• National Center for Education Statistics

More about our data sources and methodologies.